Trends of Digital Transformation Based on the UN, EU, and NATO Experiences

ABSTRACT

At the global level, rapid technological advances and ambiguities of international norms require the development of new approaches and views for clarifying notions of digital behavior. The digital world does not have boundaries, and there is no global consensus and understanding on legal aspects of digital space. In this regard, Russia, China, and many like-minded countries have different concepts of the applicability of international law to the digital world. These states could potentially operate in the digital space according to different understandings of what is permissible under international norms, including international humanitarian law. A reinterpretation of the international legal framework means providing new explanations of existing norms. As mentioned by Professor Michael Schmitt, the general editor of the two Tallinn Manuals, a secondary source of law cannot create law. States make laws. New realities of the twenty-first century, including the COVID-19 pandemic, will catalyze the definition of rules of global digital cooperation architecture by states in the future.